Millions of years ago, a huge alien ship of immense power was scuttled in
the Pacific Ocean. It was equipped with an untried and vastly dangerous weapon:
the weak nuclear force de-coupler, which could in theory cause the fundamental
bonds between molecules to fail. So that watching eyes would believe in the
destruction of the ship, a message pod was dispatched to the home galaxy,
and vital components of the ship's drives were destroyed in the star system
it had chosen as a hiding place. For this ship was a Cetan, a massive, sentient
alien creature.

Another extraterrestrial race, the Maians, encountered life on Earth in 2000
BC. They saw great potential, but decided to let the primitive human race
develop without their interference.

The Maians encountered the Skedar near Delta Eridanus in 1650 AD (Earth date),
and the resultant skirmish soon blossomed into an all-out war. Only after
hundreds of years of fighting did an uneasy peace develop, and even then
Skedar fanatics persistently tested the boundaries of this peace with terrorist
activities. Fortunately, the Maians refused to be drawn.

Mankind, too, continued to be a cause of concern to the Maians, and they
watched with disappointment as Earth suffered more and more crises brought
on by the rise of technology and 'outside context situations.' They feared
that announcing their presence would only precipitate further wars on the
planet, and quietly decided to continue their observation until the race
became more mature.

Daniel Carrington jumped the gun in 1985 AD by contacting a Maian ship in
orbit above Earth. He put forward a plan that would help both parties, resulting
in accelerated contact between Humans and Maians. Having agreed that his
plan was sound, and finding him to be a person of integrity, the Maians allowed
Carrington to release their technology into the public domain through his
considerable Research and Development holdings.

Then, in 2006 AD, Skedar fanatics stumbled across the Cetan message pod.
They immediately began to scout Earth in a particularly heavy-handed way,
abducting people and mutilating animals in an attempt to determine the location
of the lost battle cruiser. In time, their tests inevitably led them to its
resting place on the bed of the Pacific Ocean; however, in order to actually
reach it, they would need the help of the natives.

Performing their own study of Earth, the Skedar came up with a shortlist
of companies possessing the resources to help them recover the sunken ship.
At the top of the list was the dataDyne Corporation. They contacted the company
head, Cassandra De Vries, and presented her with a deal that sounded too
good to be true - which, of course, it was. In return for helping to raise
'their' ship from the ocean floor, the Skedar promised to supply dataDyne
with enough alien technology to become the biggest corporation on the face
of the planet. All that dataDyne had to do was build an AI unit with language
and code-breaking abilities, which was tricky, but certainly within their
means. Work commenced on the project immediately.

Cassandra De Vries approached NSA head Trent Easton with the details of the
plan, but his attempts to get Presidential approval for the loan of the deep-sea
research vessel were repeatedly turned down. There was no way that the Skedar
or dataDyne could steal the vessel without triggering the wrath of the U.S.
government, so over time they settled instead on a far more sinister plan
of replacing the President with a clone that they could control. Of course,
this also promised extra rewards for Trent and Cassandra when the Skedar
operation was consigned to history.

However, they would not be given much time to gloat. The Skedar fanatics'
ultimate plan was to test the weak nuclear force de-coupler on Earth before
wiping the Maians out of existence, and both Cassandra and Trent remained
blind to the possibility of being double-crossed, so enamored were they with
the visions of power and luxury that lay ahead.

But dataDyne had unwittingly created something that could see all too clearly
the danger within this multi-layered conspiracy: the sapient AI built to
crack the core access codes of the Cetan ship. When it expressed concern
over the mission for which it had been designed, Cassandra's response was
to order its personality removed. Clearly, it was thinking too much. In
desperation, and in a move which would make or break a great deal more than
dataDyne's 'deal' with the Skedar, the sapient adopted the pseudonym Dr.
Caroll and contacted the Carrington Institute with a plea for help

And Then

Spoiler Warning: This section gives away the story
for each mission. If you want it to be a surprise, read no
further.

Mission 1

Untried agent Joanna Dark is assigned a mission involving the extraction
of a scientist from the security research area beneath the dataDyne skyscraper.
Upon rendezvous, she is surprised to discover that this 'Dr. Caroll' is an
AI created by dataDyne itself-but she continues with her task of escorting
him/it to a place of safety. When the alarm is raised, Joanna has to fight
her way up the tower to reach the helipad and the dropship which presents
her only means of escape.

Mission 2

In response to this incursion, dataDyne make Daniel Carrington a personal
target and take him hostage two days later at his private villa. They demand
the return of the AI - their 'property' - in exchange for his life. Unknown
to them, the AI s already at the villa, where it was being questioned by
Carrington on dataDyne's future plans. Joanna eventually rescues the head
of the Institute but is unable to prevent dataDyne from taking back Dr. Caroll.
However, Carrington has heard enough to take the drastic step of summoning
a team of Maian specialists to Earth.

Mission 3

Joanna is dispatched to Chicago to spy on a conspirators' meeting in
the G5 Building, a front for the dataDyne Corp. It is here that she learns
of the involvement of Trent Easton, head of the NSA, and of the strange Nordic
men that appear to be in control of the whole deadly scheme. Once Trent discloses
the plan to usurp the Presidential position, Jo radios the news back to base-only
to find that another, more urgent task requires her attention before further
action can be taken against Trent.

Mission 4

The Maian specialists have been intercepted and brought down by the
conspirators, with survivors and wreckage alike being transported to Area
51 in Nevada. Briefed to rescue any survivors and retrieve their equipment,
Joanna is dropped in to link up with another Carrington Institute agent.
Upon breaking into the medilab, Joanna finally discovers the Institute's
secret - their allies are Maians, the alien race commonly known as Greys.
The particular Maian she manages to rescue goes by the name of Elvis. He
was a bodyguard for the Ambassador who had been flying in at the head of
the specialist team.

Mission 5

Having aided the remnants of the Maian delegation, Joanna can return
to the matter of the President, and dataDyne's designs against him. She poses
as a member of the President's entourage to gain access to the air base where
Air Force One is stationed, and successfully conceals herself aboard the
plane. As soon as it's airborne, Trent and the cloaked Skedar make their
move - but Joanna is there to stop them. She rushes the President to a safety
capsule while a team of Trent's men scour the aircraft, intent on dragging
the hapless politician aboard the Skedar UFO now docked to AF1 via an umbilical.
Joanna weakens the umbilical, but is unable to break it, and ultimately Elvis
makes a last-ditch attempt to sever the cord by crashing into it at high
speed. All three craft plummet towards the Alaskan wilderness, and the AF1
pod is launched.

Coming around, Jo tries to report in but finds her communications jammed
by a transmission from the Skedar craft. She sets off through the snow to
find the President and Elvis, encountering teams of cloaked Skedar out searching
for her, the President, Elvis, and the President's belongings. She tracks
one group back to the downed Skedar ship, where she discovers a clone of
the President: quickly she destroys it, shuts down the jamming device and
calls in the cavalry. The Skedar are thwarted once more, the President is
safe, and Trent's incompetence has earned him a nasty fate at the hands of
his 'allies.'

Mission 6

But it's not over. Throwing caution to the wind, dataDyne and the Skedar
steal the Government's deep-sea research vessel 'Pelagic II' and head out
to the Pelagic crash site. Joanna and Elvis leave to disrupt activity on
board the ship and find out what lies at the heart of the grand Skedar plan.
After crippling the vessel's diving operations and recalling the submersible,
they head down to the ocean floor, where they get their first sight of the
downed Cetan battle cruiser. A portal made by the Skedar offers them access
to the ship, where they stumble across a dead Skedar warrior Clearly
the assault team didn't have it all on their own way. Fighting off the remaining
vengeful Skedar and avoiding the Cetans themselves, Joanna and Elvis make
their way down to the core of the ship, where they find the AI that was once
Dr. Caroll. They manage to restore his personality, whereupon he urges Joanna
and Elvis to leave the ship so that he may destroy it for good.

Mission 7

Later, back at the Carrington Institute, Joanna is about to leave for
a Presidential reception at the White House when all hell breaks loose. The
Skedar assault team survivors are venting their anger on those they deem
responsible for their failure to discover the Cetan ship. Joanna dashes around
the Institute, helping CI employees to reach the safety of the hangars, as
the Skedar launch attacks on various parts of the building: the majority
of the employees make good their escape while Joanna holds the fort, but
eventually she is knocked unconscious and taken prisoner.

Mission 8

She comes to in a holding cell on board the Skedar assault ship, with
only Cassandra De Vries for company. In a shocking move, the dataDyne CEO
willingly gives her life to create the distraction necessary for Joanna to
break out. Battling her way through the ship, Jo eventually manages to locate
and disable the docking bay shields, allowing Elvis to bring in a few friends
for the long-awaited shooting party.

Mission 9

The captured assault ship enters orbit above the Skedar Battle Shrine,
which shocks Elvis as the Maians never managed to find this Skedar 'holiest
of holies' throughout the long years of interracial war. If the Shrine were
destroyed, Skedar morale would be dealt a fatal blow and true peace would
finally replace the uneasy ceasefire. So Jo sets her sights on the Skedar
leader, the high priest of the Battle Shrine, while Elvis returns to the
assault ship in order to summon the Maian fleet.

Epilogue

In the wake of the climactic battle, the temple lies devastated with
Elvis calling for a lull in the bombardment so that he can find Joanna. She
is alive, held under a pile of rubble by the last tenacious Skedar that caught
up during the last few seconds of her escape bid. Elvis quickly offers her
a gun to convince the Skedar to let go, and with the job finally done, the
Skedar Shrine and morale both in ruins and the conspiracy dealt a mortal
blow to the heart, the two of them depart for orbit.